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1) Official visit season has started for the summer and all I can think about is how much it's changed. There used to be so much more anticipation and drama. Kids often used to make decisions either on official visits or that night after getting back home. That's all gone now, killed by social media. Even the kids that commit on their official visits--and there still are some--usually don't announce it because they have to wait at least a day to get a graphic or a video made. I'm not begrudging the kids their moment in the sun. (I'd say they only get one shot at it, but in the transfer portal era, many of them get two and a lot get three or four). It's just...different. People who do what we do used to spend all day Sunday trying to talk to these kids. I remember visit weekends with 10 or 12 kids where I was basically working the phones from 11 am to 9 pm. I remember stepping out of church to break Connell Davis' commitment. Now, we reach out, they largely ignore us and we wait for them to tweet. You're probably going to read this as "old media guy bitching about his job." That's not really it. I think it's worse for you guys. The suspense isn't the same. Don't get me wrong, everyone still gets as excited about commitments, but the process is different. Maybe that's not better or worse. Maybe it's just different. But official visit Sundays used to be a huge deal. Now they really aren't.
2) In that light, Missouri may have gotten two commitments. We aren't sure at this point. There was no bat signal from Eli Drinkwitz and nobody has announced anything. But there was this:
That would seem to indicate good things about Marquis Johnson, the only wide receiver on campus. It was retweeted by his father, Domonique, who played at Mizzou under Gary Pinkel.
There was also this
That could have been a commitment signal on the defensive line. Stay tuned. There could be news today.
3) Everything else is fairly quiet on the Mizzou front. We'll get into position previews and be in full pre-season mode within a few weeks, but right now is the calm before the storm. If July brings talking season, June brings prognostication and hot take season. With the transfer portal madness of the last couple of years, April and May are still fairly busy months in college football. Outside of recruiting camps (which are far less meaningful than they used to be because the vast majority of 2023 offers have already gone out as have a lot in 2024), June is basically the lone slow month in college football. To fill the void, we make predictions. So what the hell, let's make some predictions.
SEC EAST
Georgia
Kentucky
Florida
Tennessee
Missouri
South Carolina
Vanderbilt
SEC WEST
Alabama
Texas A&M
Ole Miss
Arkansas
LSU
Auburn
Mississippi State
4) Plenty are making predictions on the basketball front these days too. Picking the starting five, predicting the record, etc. I just can't make myself do it yet. The season is almost five months away. There hasn't been a practice with everyone together. Missouri has three players who have played significant high major minutes. It has three players who have ever gone through an organized practice together. I have absolutely zero clue what to expect out of Dennis Gates' first team. We don't know the full schedule. Throw in the fact that I couldn't tell you anything about anyone else's roster in the SEC and trying to make any guesses about what Missouri will be this year is saying things just to say them. Even the starting five, nobody has any idea. I doubt Gates does. (It also doesn't matter. What matters is which five players play the most minutes, not which five play the first minutes). The only prediction I have for Missouri basketball this year is that the record will be better than the 12-21 it was last year. But I'd have made that prediction if the exact same roster and coaching staff returned from last year. It's pretty difficult to be 12-21 as a high major team. Missouri got there not only by being bad, but also by having some things simply go against it. They'll be better. I have no idea how much better.
5) Missouri hired a new women's golf coach on Saturday night. Georgia assistant Carolina Westrup will take over. I really only mention that to be able to transition into the non-Mizzou portion of the thoughts. The biggest story in sports last week was the first LIV Tour event in London. If you're a golf fan, you know what it is. If you're not a golf fan, you don't care and aren't reading this. There are two issues with the LIV Tour: 1) Should the players be playing on it? 2) Will anybody watch it?
As for the first, I don't know. It's easy to make decisions with other people's money. But if somebody's offering me life changing money, would I definitely say no? I don't know. Andy Ogletree finished last this weekend. Shot more than 20 over. Made $120,000. Charl Schwartzel made $4.75 million for his performance (which doesn't even count whatever he might have been paid just to show up). That would put him 10th on the PGA Tour money list this season. For those guys, I get it. I get it less for guys like Dustin Johnson and Phil Mickelson. Yes, they got a combined $350 million, reportedly, before hitting a shot. But they had already combined to make $168 million on the PGA Tour. They are second and third on the career earnings list. Is there a huge difference between having $75 million and $225 million? Maybe. I've never been in the situation to have to make that call. For the randoms trying to make a living, I get why they're on the LIV Tour a little bit. For the big names, it's harder to understand.
On the second, I'm a pretty big golf fan. This was the only shot I saw from the event in London this week
Meanwhile, I watched the final round of the RBC Canadian Open for about three hours yesterday. The final group of Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas and Tony Finau was wildly entertaining. Rory ended up winning, then fired his best shot of the week
Maybe the LIV will keep going for a while. Maybe some more big names will play on it. For me, the PGA Tour and the majors are the golf I'll watch.
6) Back to college sports, the College World Series is mostly set and it serves as another illustration of the difficulty for Mizzou baseball. Arkansas, Ole Miss and Texas A&M are already in the CWS. Auburn can get in with a win over Oregon State today. That's half the field from the SEC and doesn't even include Tennessee, which ran roughshod over the league, going 55-7 in the regular season and winning the conference by six full games. The Vols lost to Notre Dame in the super regional round yesterday and Twitter took great joy in it. Tony Vitello's team is...tough to like. They're really good. No question about it. They also made no friends with their actions throughout the season. Sports are better with villains. They're necessary. Tennessee has stepped into the role quite nicely. When the Irish put the finishing touches on the 7-3 win yesterday, pretty much everyone outside of Knoxville took to social media to celebrate. Here's a sampling
